Xenoandrogens – resources / Xenoandrogene – Erfahrungen
I’m getting really many e-mails from people not fluent in English who request some sources on Xenoandrogens in their language (most of them are German and French-speakers).
So I decided to keep a list of articles on this topic that I found on the net. Here it goes:
Article in German at muskel-guide.net mentioning xenoandrogens:
Article on xenoandrogens in German at anabolika.de:
http://www.anabolika.de/xenoandrogene.html
Article on xenonadrogens in German at anabole-steroide.net:
http://anabole-steroide.net/anabolika-legal.php
Article on xenoandrogens in French at le-culturisme.com:
http://le-culturisme.com/xenoandrogenes.html
Article on xenoandrogens in French at steroides.info:
http://steroides.info/legal.php
Article in English at Muscle Sport Magazine:
Mixing xenoandrogens with prohormones: is MegaGear doing the right thing?
Although many top athletes are using xenoandrogen products from MegaGear these days, few actually realize that they consume potent prohormones in the same time. This may not be such a good idea.
It all started with a Turkish weightlifter being positively tested on Boldenone sooner this year. Deniz (I’m not going to publish his full name for obvious reasons) was on a mix of MegaGear products but not on illegal steroids. He was quite sure that the test has something to do with xenoandrogens he is using but was unable to prove it.
This sparked some debate on xenoandrogens: what good they are if – although legal – they can be confused with a common scheduled substance in the doping tests?
As it seems, the problem is somewhat more complex. The fact is that all oil-based products from MegaGear have more than one active substance. The xenohormone is always mixed with several prohormones (campesterol, beta-Sitosterol and stigmasterol) which are all precursors of boldenone. This means that if you sort of overdose you will have alfa-boldenone in your urine.
The problem with false positive boldenone tests are not new. In fact, there are several scientific studies trying to distinguish between boldenone use (which is illegal) and the use of precursors (which in the case of boldenone are common plant-derived steroids and just can’t be outlawed as they are also present in margarine etc.).
Personally, I like the action of boldenone undecylenate. Before the steroids were made illegal I considered it the best anabolic product on the marked: quite anabolic, with quality muscle mass increases, almost harmless when used in reasonable amounts and increasing appetite. Therefore, I like it as a “free bonus” that you get with every MegaGear injectable. But the strong case for xenoandrogens was that they can be used by professional athletes without being detected.
An average bodybuilder has no problem using anabolic steroids, this is a problem for those of us participating in official competitions. So if MegaGear is not good to be used by competitive bodybuilders, who’s gonna use it anyway?
To be fair, it can be very much a question of dosage and metabolism. I don’t know what doses Deniz used and I’m sure there are many other pro athletes using xenohormones by the same producer without problems. Still, this is something that must be considered by the company and by its clients too.
Modifications explained
Many people asked me about the meaning of “modifications“ of tocopherol, tocotrienol and nicotinamide – the substances used in production of xenoandrogens we are using as performance-enhancing drugs.
Frankly, until now I was not able to answer such questions. I do have some background in biology but let’s admit that manipulating non-hormonal substances to make them resemble hormones is not exactly what they teach you at the university.
While the producer is somewhat secretive about this, the scientists developing xenoandrogens are not.
So here is what I learned:
Many naturally occurring substances can exist in various different forms which will then have a different impact on human organism. One has to bear in mind that many such substances are actually very complicated molecules. They can either naturally occur in several structural variations or can be artificially modified.
This is confusing for those who are used to deal with steroids, as they know many testosterone-derivates which have all different names – and on top of that, come esterified by various esters.
This is because it is well known in medicine that a slightly different version of a hormone can have significantly different action in the body.
The situation is different with many other molecules. As they were usually not used as “serious” drugs, the classification is much more liberal. It means that you can twist and tweak, say, tocopherol and its name will be the same.
An example? Take vitamin B. You can call it vitamin B and you’ll be right. Then, you can be more specific and distinguish between B1, B2, B3, B6, B12 etc. OK, so let’s take one of them, for instance vitamin B6.
Here we are quite specific. If you produce dietary supplements and add vitamin B6, it is perfectly OK to describe it as such. But in fact, it can come in forms known as pyridoxine, pyridoxine 5’-phosphate, pyridoxal, pyridoxal 5’-phosphate, pyridoxamine, pyridoxamine 5’-phosphate, 4-pyridoxic acid.
And what about pyridoxine subgroups? Well, they don’t have specific names.
In theory, we could create countless subgroups of such substances, but the food-labels would still describe them as vitamin B6 or, say, pyridoxamine, at best.
In the case of tocopherol, the existing MegaGear anabolic steroid-clones are based on modifications of all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate. How are those modifications different from their “parent substance”? Here is an excerpt from a scientific study published in 1989:
The biological activity of the tocopherols vary greatly, and this variation is only partly correlated with the antioxidant activity of the tocopherols when this is studied in a lipid medium. A number of features of the tocopherol molecule evidently contribute to the biological activity, and this may be compared with the activity of either synthetic all rac-alpha-tocopherol or to the natural RRR-alpha-tocopherol. The features causing alterations in biological activity may include (1) the presence or absence of ring methyl groups in the 5, 7, and 8 positions; (2) the number of carbon atoms in the side chain; (3) the stereaspecificity of the carbon atoms 2, 4’, and 8’; (4) the branching of the side chain; (5) the chromanol ring as compared to a furanol ring; and (6) the point of attachment of the side chain to the ring structure. The work described in the present paper is a systematic study in which the effect on growth and on prostaglandin E2 synthesis was measured on a comparative basis for a range of structurally modified compounds.
If you are really interested in the stuff, you can read the whole article here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1989.tb14909.x/abstract
As you can see, the differences can be quite significant. It is really like calling nandrolone, trenabol, oxandrolone and boldenone just “testosterone modifications”…
In fact, the structural difference between nandrolone and testosterone is smaller than between all-rac-alpha-tocopheryl acetate and its various modifications.
By playing with the rings, sidechains and their positions, the computer program can create virtually countless modifications. Some of them are then evaluated as promising and undergo further testing.
254 modifications and counting
The recently published overview shows there are no less than 254 various xenoandrogens that can be potentially used as performance-enhancement drugs.
Of course, not all of them are fit for human use and some may – in theory – prove rather harmful.
But how you create a modification of an existing substance and how can you test its effects on human body?
Unlike the drugs of yesteryear, huge deal of designing and testing a new substance is today done in the memory of a computer only. Millions and millions of variables must be changed until there is hope that the resulting modification will have the wished-for effects.
Still, even the fastest computer is not a match to in-vivo testing: using the substance in living organisms. First, rodents are the victims. Then, some larger animals and ultimately the humans will use the substance (if safe…of course).
Every newly designed modification is tested on influencing the testosterone production, anabolic activity, protein synthesis stimulation (which is basically the same), androgenic activity etc.
Of the 254 computer-designed modifications, 47 have been tested in laboratory conditions and out of these 47, 12 eventually made it to commercial production.
The choice of those 12 modified tocotrienols and nicotinamides had been done purely on commercial base: namely, the producer was interested in substances showing close resemblances to previously known anabolic steroids.
But what about the rest? Maybe, there is a new super-stimulant that will outdo all we have ever known? Imagine sort of Oxymetholone/Dianabol/Nandrolone stack that would cause no testosterone retention and no liver damage J
Having used the xenohormones for the past several months I strongly believe such a substance is near. One reason is that I never experienced any serious side-effect and neither did my fellow-bodybuilders. And this is quite something.
To be sure, not every athlete using xenoandrogens will experience huge muscle gains. We’ve seen some who had to try several different products to feel at least some improvement. But they never had acne, shrinking testes, baldness, liver problems. Not to speak about being tested positive on steroids or just doing something that can easily land you in jail.
Another huge advantage of androgens is that they are produced and sold legally, and here I mean that you know who really produced them and under what hygienic conditions. Because this is the real problem with steroids today.
Some observations on Danabol from MegaGear
As the name suggest, this xenoandrogen has been designed to resemble the famous Dianabol. First of all, I wonder whether this was necessary. Why the producer couldn’t just try to produce a completely new line of performance-enhancing drugs?
I suspect the only reason is commercial: people tend to buy what they know. By giving it a name of classical (and highly esteemed) anabolic steroid, MegaGear is obviously parasiting on the success of someone else.
Letting all this aside we expected to get very similar results with Danabol as we would get from methandienone (Dianabol). First 10 days or so were a disappointment. Indeed, you don’t feel much when you start using xenohormones. The first days or even weeks you just wonder if it’s going to work at all. Well, it is.
- Danabol makes you aggressive. This is a typical sign of AR stimulation/androgenic action. It comes rather slowly during the second week of use and will stabilize in 4th or 5th week.
- Danabol will cause a fair measure of water retention in the muscles. Although this seems to be somewhat individual it is still one of the main characteristic signs of both Dianabol and MegaGear Danabol xenohormone.
- The anabolic effect of Danabol is strong but not as lasting as with some other drugs (whether anabolic steroids or xenoandrogens). It is probably worth to combine Danabol with at least one additional product like Tren-bol 100.
All in all this is a viable alternative to the illegal methandienone (Dianabol) but it will probably take 2-3 weeks until you get used to it. The experience isn’t completely equal. On the other hand, you will most likely not need any post-cycle therapy which is usually necessary when using methandienone.
My first experiences with modified tocopherols/nicotinamides
It’s more than 2 months now since me and 4 selected bodybuilders have been using modified tocopherols and nicotinamides. We all made one first cycle to see if xenoandrogens are for real and here are my impressions:
1. Cycles with modified tocopherols/tocotrienols/nicotinamides must be longer than those with anabolic steroids. I still don’t know how long but my guess is at least 12 weeks. Except for one person, none of us felt the action during the first month of use.
2. Xenoandrogens, although marketed under similar names as anabolic steroids (and designed to be as similar as possible) are still different. A beginner might not feel the difference but I (bodybuilding coach since many years) did. Some differences are annoying (slower action, sometimes less pronounced effects) while others are welcome (definitely less testosterone inhibition to mention just one).
3. You will need some time to know the various xenoandrogens available. Not everything may work with you – in such case it’s good to test a different product. I personally had a weak response to oral products but very pronounced one with oils.
4. Although oily solutions are marketed as oral products they are apparently much stronger if injected. Please notice I do not suggest you inject them just as this is not meant to be an advice to anyone. I simply describe our own experience.
5. At this moment I see no need for anti-estrogens used along with modified tocopherols/nicotinamides. Of course it far too early to say after just one cycle.
6. Xenoandrogens definitely do have effect on muscle growth. All of us experienced significant gains that were previously observed with anabolic steroids only.
7. It’s too early to say if xenoandrogens are completely safe. So far we had no side-effects except for acne in 2 cases.
Hope this helps, I’ll be back with more experiences soon.
New non-steroidal anabolic compounds cause headaches to doping agencies
And one more on xenoandrogens and doping (from July 2011)
Doping is bad. It’s not only unfair, it’s also unhealthy. Or at least it used to be… Anti-doping crusaders had it easy when persuading us about the ills of anabolic steroids: liver damage, testosterone inhibition, vascular and sometimes heart-tissue damage, increased LDL are all scary side-effects, not to mention the devastation that anabolic steroids are causing among teenagers, who are prone to suffer more from hormonal drugs.
But with the onset of novel (and harmless) muscle-growth stimulants, the crusade becomes harder to defend.
Some 10 years ago it seemed that the most promising muscle-growth stimulants of the future will be myostatin inhibitors (or myostatin blockers). That made sense – myostatin is a protein that actually inhibits the unlimited muscle growth. So by inhibiting the inhibitor, your muscles should get huge with just the required protein intake. Muscular Piedmontese bulls with inherited genetic trait that blocks the myostatin were brought as a shining example of the possible results. However, after several years of unsuccessful trials, most researchers gave up the idea that myostatin inhibition is possible in humans in the near future.
Considering the fiasco with myostatin blockers, xenohormones came as a huge surprise. It should have not: we knew for decades that certain proteins present in soy and other vegetable (as well as some synthetic products like plastic bottles) have effects similar to estrogen hormone. Phytoestrogens (estrogen-like compounds present in plants) or xenoestrogens (“foreign” estrogen-like compounds of any origin) can cause male infertility and many other estrogenic effects.
But until recently, we knew of no naturally occurring xenoandrogen, or testosterone-like substance found in the nature. Natural xenoandrogens might well not exist, there are however artificial xenoandrogens produced by small alterations in naturally occurring tocopherols and tocotrienols.
Such modified tocopherols/tocotrienols are almost indistinguishable from existing anabolic steroid drugs. And that’s the problem – or at least a huge challenge for anti-doping authorities who are caught completely unprepared and hapless.
Being most similar to vitamin E, modified tocopherols are obviously legal. So far, not side-effects are known and so there is even no reason to categorize them as prescription drugs.
At 2011 swimming championship in Shanghai, the Russian team doctor has been caught with what looked very much like anabolic steroids. The vials have been tested but no hormones found. The case looked like a double embarrassment for the team: they were caught red-handed with anabolic steroids, which were even fake… But later the anti-doping committee realized that the Russians had something completely new and legal: modified tocopherols from European producer. The team grabbed 3rd place in Shanghai, what it means for the future of doping remains to be seen…
Xenoandrogens and doping
I found an interesting interview concerning modified tocopherols/tocotrienols. This is a translation from Czech language:
Legally available anabolic steroid equivalents are commercially available only since the second half of 2011 but some professional athletes are apparently using them since early 2010.
The first mention of the use of xenohormones by top athletes in official media (by Associated Press) was the news about the Russian swimming team using them at 2011 World Championship in Shanghai.
There are, however, many signs that a growing number of professionals are using modified tocopherols and tocotrienols as a legal and undetectable alternative to “real” anabolic steroids.
WADA-AMA, the international anti-doping body, estimates that by 2014 more than 80% of all abused substances will be xenohormones.*
This is an excerpt from interview with the representative of Czech national anti-doping agency Ales Vetchy, published 8th of August 2011 in the daily “Sport” (translation from Czech).
Q: Mr. Vetchy, can you tell us more about xenoandrogens?
A: We don’t know much about these substances. We are dealing with them only since the beginning of this year. So far, the international bodies didn’t ban it so we are closely following the new developments. It will probably take another year or two to create complete guidelines and develop reliable testing.
Q: Is it true that xenohormones are more common in this country than in the rest of the World?
A: Yes, that’s apparently correct. At least we get this impression when comparing our data with that of our colleagues abroad. But I think it has nothing to do with cheating and everything to do with the fact that the only producer of modified tocopherols is located in our country.
Q: When we speak of modified tocopherols, what should we imagine?
A: The basic substance is very similar to vitamin E. It is the molecular modification that makes it anabolic/androgenic. These substances are only known since 2008 so it’s virtually impossible to find experts knowledgeable in this particular field of biology.
Q: Do you plan to ban modified tocopherols?
A: We do not make such decisions. It’s up to the international association to decide and we will implement the decision.
Q: Are xenohormones harmful?
A: At this stage it’s too early to say. It takes years to test a new drug. Modified tocopherols are now legal just as tocopherol and tocotrienol.
Q: Do you think that xenohormones should be banned even if proven harmless?
A: Doping is not only about abusing harmless substance. First and foremost, it is unfair. Athletes with access to doping have an edge over those who don’t. From what we know, xenohormones are potent anabolic and androgenic compounds and in my opinion should be banned even before we completely understand their way of action.
My obsession with xenoandrogens
First let me introduce myself. My name is Michael and I’m 42 years old full-time bodybuilding coach. I was mentor to several BB champions from continental Europe since 1990’s and you can imagine that I do know something on anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
As we all know, bodybuilding is a sport literally dependent on steroids. But in recent years the new anti-steroid laws made me and all my colleagues nothing short of a drug dealer. Yes, in my country – and in most other Western countries – there is not much of a difference today between the legal status of cocaine and, say, nandrolone or tren.
Well – I was looking for alternatives. Prohormones were a good solution for several years. Some guys didn’t respond to them but most did, although it sometimes took no less than 4-5 months to adjust the dosage and all. Then the EU criminal laws included prohormones and we had to begin from the scratch.
In March 2010 I met my relative who was at that time closely working with a team studying modified tocopherols/tocotrienols and their possible use in testosterone-replacement therapy. I became immediately interested and he managed to bring me some samples from the university lab.
So I guess I was among the first coaches in the World that had the privilege to experiment with xenoandrogens.This blog is about what I learned, and hopefully what I will learn in the future.
This is not a commercial blog and I don’t look for sponsors. I will never promote any commercial company so please do not contact me with advertisement – I will always be independent and critical.
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